Sisters of the Face
by Alanna the Elf
Summary: Ilaria has always hoped that the Storming Egg would chose her to be it's Rider. Nothing happens as she thought it would. OC. Please review...
1. The Storming Egg

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the ****Inheritance cycle or the characters within, Christopher Paolini does.**

I stared up at the ceiling of my ma's thatch cottage. A mabird was roosting on her and her pabird's eggs, on one of the rafters holding up the roof. I moved under my covers and she squawked and flew off. I reached down and touched my toes, sighing as my lower spine cracked. I wouldn't be able to enjoy much more of this laziness much longer, so I stood up and slipped out of my night-shift and into my cotton dress. Ma was planning of marrying me off soon and I didn't want that day to come.

As a fifteen year old member of the Schmitt household I was expected to be able to hold my own against anyone. My oldest sibling is Marta and she is evil to me. Completely dead in my heart. The only way for me to not be married off within the year is if the Storming Egg chose me to be it's Rider-of-the-Heart. I wished so...

"Ilaria! Your arse needs to be down here in ten seconds or you can bet your flaming locks that I'll whip it raw!" Marta had the highest voice ever and kept it so by never-ceasing to threaten.

"I'll be there," I sprinted down the dirt path leading to the main house. Marta had whipped me before and I wished for it to never happen again.

I smoothed my skirt as I walked into the kitchen and prepared to break my night-fast with my Sister-of-the-Face, we looked too much alike for my liking. the only differences are that she is small while am lanky and her hair is the color of coffee beans. Mine eats my back like the flames for which it is the same color.

Ceunon is a fishing and hunting village and ma owns the biggest boat in port. We fry, bake, broil, salt, smoke and eat fish raw. I hate fish. We eat them at every meal. I know every fish that lives in the Ceunon Lake and they would take up their own book.

Today, I realized, is rest day. I glared at Marta for waking me up on rest day. Rest day is the day in which all hunters and fisher-women rest from their duties of collecting food for the major cities of Alagaesia. My Sister-of-the-Face glared down at me and sneered.

I finished the rest of my fish-bone broth and abruptly left the main house. My feet took me to the sacred grove of the Storming Egg. They say that the profetess, Angela, used to live here and that her body became the Storming Egg when she died. But I never believed that save when I was a small child. I believed that she may have lived here, though. Ma said we were related to her, as well. That was every family's claim. Lots of not-truths surround this grove but the egg is still here.

I heard rustling within the grove and immediately thought of the rule: No one touches the Storming Egg. I rushed through the brush and found Marta staring at me.

"You are interrupting my conversation," she growled at my hem.

"No one touches the Storming Egg."

"That is not true. All children touch the Storming Egg when the time is right. That rule is in place to keep ones from being at the wrong time." I stared at Marta in confusion and relief. She wasn't threatening me!

"So the time is right for you."

"No, I have been conversing with the egg and it said we both need to be here together."

"I don't believe you and-"

"Shut UP," her glare made me wither, "The High Orders are at work. Can't you tell? ... No don't answer that."

I took a step toward the Storming Egg so as to protect it from her.

"You don't believe me," she whimpered. I took another step toward the egg.

Marta walked up to the Storming Egg and put her hand flat upon it. "Come, please. Our time has come to get out of this hellhole, even if we have to be together." I placed my hand upon the egg and there was a warmth underneath the shell. Suddenly, the warmth moved. Marta and I stared at each other in shock.


	2. Hatching

The egg was alive. Until that moment I had doubted that the egg was actually an egg. I had thought of it as a rock. Abet an odd rock, more like a boulder at 12 palms tall and 15 or so wide. I had never seen a boulder that was of shifting shades of grey for that matter either.

Today is feast day. Everyone brought their best catch of the week and a great feast was made. I had brought a large she-salmon that I had prepared to grill. Grilling being the least disgusting way to cook fish in my opinion. My youngest sibling, Tomas, was bringing his first hunt, a rabbit, to our table. A rabbit is a great accomplishment for a First Hunt, Tomas will be mighty someday.

* * *

Three hours of cooking led to the feast. Feasts are oftentimes meals of only meat. Looking around I could see spitted and smoked venison, all kinds of indescribable fish, squirrels, rabbits and even a coyote here and there. Lots of girls could be seen chatting with hunters and tradesmen. Ma was egging me on to go talk to Henry. She hoped to marry us but would have a hard time when I was not present. Henry is a stupid lout.

"Fine Ma! I'll go talk to him." But I didn't and never again will. I instead went to visit the Storming Egg's grove. As I sat down to lean against the egg a squirrel came out and sniffed my foot, froze and ran away. The warmth inside the egg moved and settled against my back. I had sat for about an hour when I felt a sharp hit in between my shoulder blades. Confused, I looked around and it happened again. Slowly, realization dawned upon me and I ran to get Marta.

She shrieked as I pulled her away from a hunter she had been flirting with. "Marta, Marta! It's hatching! Come!" Sure enough, she came. I put my hand upon the shell where I had sat and felt the jab again.

"Can I feel?" Marta asked.

"Well, since you asked nicely," she put her hand where mine had been. CRACK. But the shell where Marta's hand was lay unbroken. Marta rushed to the other side where the claw of a turquoise paw was sticking out of a crack in the shell. A second crack sounded. This time it was my time to rush to the other side. A yellow slitted eye was staring through a hole about the size of my palm. The scales around the eye were a light sage green.

* * *

An hour had gone by. the turquoise dragon had fully gotten out of its shell first. There seemed to be a wall in the middle of the egg. The turquoise dragon set to licking herself as soon as she had set the gedwey ignasia upon Marta's palm. I tried to help the sage dragon out of the egg but it was as hard as metal. After a brief moment of this horrible screeching sound the sage dragon was out of its side of the egg. He came up to me with big, imploring eyes and gently nudged my hand. White-hot pain raced up my nerves to my brain and in an instant it was over. When I looked down upon my palm an iridescent oval was shown.

_Hunger..._ The desire echoed across my mind. It felt utterly alien, as if a cold finger were running across my face.

_What? _ My mind rebelled.

_I smell good things-for-eating. _I realized the deep voice must be the dragon talking in my mind.

_Yes, there is a feast nearby, um... would you like food?_

_I am ready for things-for-eating. Correct._

"Marta, how are we going to feed them?" I asked aloud.

"Why, I'd never thought of that. How indeed?" Now she started talking to herself. "Our kinsmen fairly worship the Storming Egg. What will happen when they notice it has hatched? Will they accept it? Probably not..." She rambled off.

_I am to be called something. Yet I do not know what it is. Would you enlighten me?_

_How am I supposed to know what you're called? _There was no answer. _Um... Let me think for a moment._ I ran through all the names of everyone I knew, yet none seemed to fit. Next, I thought of the old legends and stories. One name stood out.

_Are you Katuron? _(Kuh-too-rahn)

_Yes, it is a fitting name. That is what I will be called from now on. Yet I am still hungry, where is this Feast you speak of?_

_I don't think it's a good idea for you to go to the feast... The people wouldn't like you very much._

_Now why would that be?_

_You're a dragon. They think of dragons as dangerous beings in our village._

_Hrmph..._

"Marta, we can't stay here."

"For once you are correct. In my ramblings I eventually got to that conclusion. Ganesha (Gun-ee-shuh) agreed with my logic.

"No one will be at our home right now, we could gather our things and leave." I quickly became saddened by the thought of leaving Ceunon. Even though I hate the fish, Ceunon is my home.


	3. Journey

The road to the Dragon Isles is not a harsh one. You need to get your own food but that's all. Marta and I found it hard to keep Katuron from eating every antelope we passed. That was probably why he was growing so much faster than Ganesha. It had been a month since we left Ceunon and Katuron was about five feet tall at the shoulder, while Ganesha was still four feet.

Katuron and Ganesha were teaching each other to fly. As of yet, they were both awkward in the air, but Ganesha was a bit more graceful. It must be one of those feminine characteristics. They now hunted from the sky, which more effective and made Katuron grow even faster than he had been before.

One day, I spotted lush vegetation in the distant horizon and, from then on Marta and my spirits were lightened. We were getting closer to our destination! At the most we would be there in two or three more days. As we got closer, Marta and I saw strange shapes in the sky. They were not dragons and they were just hanging there.

At the dawn of our third day since sighting of the Dragon Isles, we reached the entrance of the forest. The path we had been following had run a ways into the forest and abruptly ended.

"I suppose we shall rest our tired feet here today," Marta sighed. Marta and I ate a small meal of antelope for brunch and sat down to take a nap. Alas, the nap was not to be.

_You promised... _Katuron had promised that we could try to fly together when we reached the Dragon Isles. I was sure that I could sit comfortably between his shoulder blades. He was 7 feet tall and 20 feet long for life's sake!

_I suppose._ He lowered himself to the ground so I could awkwardly clamber up his iron-like scales. My butt was pretty snug between his massive shoulder blades, but I fit. With a jolt, he took off from the ground and for some reason I was seeing out of his eyes. It was like looking out through green tinted glass that sharpened everything almost unbearably.

_What's going on?_ I asked him.

_I don't know, I think it has something to so with the first flight._

_Okay, is this how you see all the time?_

_What do you mean?_

_The colors, the sharpness..._

_Yes, humans see many more colors than my race. Our vision is related to our scales, of their color and their sharpness. In our own eyes our own scales seem to glow. I suppose you humans see everything softly because your scales are very soft compared to ours._

_That makes sense if you don't think about it too much._

_Yeah- _Katuron was cut off by another dragon rising up before us. He was enormous and green with a female elf riding upon him. She seemed to be riding on a sort of saddle, I needed to get one of those. My thighs were rubbing themselves raw.

"Who goes there?" she talked in a self-important air.

"Um... Ilaria Schmitt. Why?"

"You are out past curfew."

"There's a curfew?"

"You don't know of the curfew? But it is common knowledge?" she looked incredulous and then realization dawned upon her, "Oh, are you new?"

"Yes, and so is my sister, Marta."

"There are two?"

"Yes. She's sleeping at the end of the path with Ganesha."

"Wait, in the forest?"

"Yea-" she cut me off.

"We must get them quickly, the path leads to a smash tree which will smash your sister to a pulp if we do not get to her soon." My face went through a series of emotions which told her, effectively, that Marta was not my favorite person in the world.

"Oh my gods, let's go then."

Whoever she was took off at a brisk pace toward where Katuron and I had come from. Katuron was almost out of breath when we caught up to them. "Who is she?" I said, in awe, under my breath.

"I am called Arya-svit-kona, queen of the älfakyn." She then smirked at my expression, "I'm older than I look, fricai."

I was still staring at her with my mouth half open when we landed at the edge of the path and immediately took off again.

"ILARIA!" Marta screamed at the top of her lungs. She was on Ganesha and they were very scraped up. They cleared the tree's reach and I saw that Marta's hand was mangled to the point that I could not look at it. I clean and gut fish, not much fazes me but I could not look at her left hand. "Help me..." she whimpered and slumped against Ganesha's neck, tears covering her face.

"Ganesha. In order to help her you need to follow me. Now." Arya's voice was so commanding that I followed her too.


	4. The Dragon Isles

The ride to the real Dragon Isles seemed like it took weeks, but, in actuality, only took fifteen minutes. Marta didn't wake up until we were in someone's stone-tree-house and we splashed cold water on her.

I had not noticed, but Arya slipped out of the side door in whoever-it-was' home after giving the owner a brief smile, for I was preoccupied with Marta's condition. She bled more heavily by the passing second. I did notice, however, when the owner squatted down next to me and started bandaging Marta's hand.

He spoke a few soft words in another language and said louder, "Her hand will not survive, but she will."

I hadn't realized that I had been holding my breath until it all came out in a whoosh. "Thank the gods," I whispered.

"She will need to be taken to the infirmary." He noticed Ganesha trying to get through the human-door.

_Ganesha! There is a big doorway for a reason! _Ganesha's reply was confused as she was trying to get out of the doorway at the same time, but I could tell she understood.

"Which dragon is your rider-of-the-heart?" the man asked me.

"Katuron. He's the green one. Wait, who are you?" He looked as if he was half man, half elf, so you could understand my confusion.

"You are right to ask that. I am Eragon Shadeslayer of Carvahall." My mouth popped open again and I reached up with my hand to close it. "Why do they always do that?" he muttered, not intending for me to hear.

"We'd better take Marta to the infirmary." I suggested.

"Oh, yes." He met eyes with Ganesha and looked like he was speaking with her. Then he picked up Marta and sat her upon Ganesha. "Please stay here until I return." He then descended the stairs with Ganesha flying as smoothly and gracefully as she could beside him.

I suddenly noticed that a gigantic blue dragon was sleeping next to the wall of the house and gasped. How could I have not seen that? REALLY?! While I inwardly freaked out, Katuron crept over to who I assumed was Saphira and gently touched noses with her, what I thought of as a custom of cats, not dragons. Her nose was as big as his whole head.

I shrank into a corner as Saphira unwound herself and stretched. I heard loud popping sounds that I supposed to be her back cracking. Saphira moved so that her snout was facing me as she yawned. I suspected that she was showing off her teeth. Katuron wiggled his butt playfully and pounced on Saphira's nearest foreleg.

_Who is it that is attacking me? _Saphira's voice seemed to be that of a kind mother.

_His name is Katuron. I don't know why he's acting like that._

Saphira stared at Katuron and included me in their further conversation.

_My paw is not your opponent, Katuron._

_No, I suppose not mother-of-birth._

_I am your mother-of-birth?_

_Firnen was shocked as well when I told him. It's just one of those things you know when you're in the egg. You do remember laying our egg, don't you? It was a strange one of two shifting storm-like things. One was me and the other was my sister-twin. _Saphira just looked at him in confusion until Eragon returned.

* * *

Eragon was still in a daze from Katuron's announcement when he explained about how things worked in the Dragon Isles.

"... every time an egg is decided to be given to become of the Bonded, a stone-tree-house is magically linked to the life within the egg. When the egg hatches, the plant begins to grow. Everyone was very surprised when one tree split stems. Your house is twined around your sister's yet separate at the same time."

We arrived at my stone-tree-house within moments and I saw what he meant.

The trunk of my new home spiraled around my sister's and had notches on the side of it to act as a stair-ladder. The two trees had separated near the bottom of the trunk and two hollow leaf-stone-houses above. The house part looked like two catch-balls stacked on top of each other. Only the catch-balls were hollow and had doors and windows on the sides. I jogged up ahead of Eragon and climbed up to my room.

The room was spacious and was cut in half to form a second level. On the first was a study-room fully equipped with a desk, chair and numerous amounts of scroll-shelves lining the walls of the circular room. I climbed the steps that stuck out of the wall up to the next level. A comfortable-looking hammock hung from the sloped ceiling. The furniture, I noticed, was all the color of Katuron's scales. Well, that made sense, since this was linked to Katuron. I climbed to the top level and found what would become Katuron's living space.

It was very airy and the wind whistled through the openings in the walls, creating a haunting, but beautiful, melody that lulled ...


End file.
